Deathloop will be set on the island of Blackreef, where eight so-called "Visionaries" have managed to set up a time loop in a bid to grant themselves immortality. They aren't alone on the island, however. The protagonist is Colt "the Captain" Vahn, who has to take down all eight of the Visionaries before the time loop resets if he wants to escape the island and the loop.
The trailers for Deathloop suggest that the player will be able to at least attempt to take down their targets in any order. Considering that the game's setting appears to be limited to Blackreef, many fans of developer Arkane have been wondering whether Deathloop will be an open-world game. Here's what the evidence says so far.
Exploring Blackreef
The aim in Deathloop will be to manipulate events on the island of Blackreef in order to get targets in the same places at the same times, allowing the assassination of multiple targets at once. Colt points out in one of the Deathloop trailers that he's learned not to try and take the Visionaries out one-by-one, as he simply runs out of time and the loop resets.
This could lead many to assume that Deathloop will be an open-world game. While there might be correct ways to manipulate the targets and escape the loop, without allowing players to experiment and find all of the Visionaries one at a time players likely won't be able to learn enough about the loop and the Visionaries to begin manipulating it.
An open world might also seem necessary to keep the world of Deathloop consistent. In the "Two Birds One Stone" trailer, for example, Colt shows how he can manipulate Visionary and scientist Egor Serling into abandoning his research to go to a party hosted by another target, masked cannibal Aleksis "the Wolf" Dorsey. Presumably, players should be able to track Igor's movement from his research center to the party that night, which would be made easier with a seamless open world. However, comments from publisher Bethesda indicate that this will not quite be the case.
Deathloop's Different Districts
Bethesda has stated that players "can tackle any area of Blackreef at any time" in order to "pick up clues and learn more" about the Visionaries they have to take down. "The districts are open," the publisher continued, "like what you might remember from Dishonored, but unlike Dishonored, they aren't tied to levels and can be openly explored whenever."
Dishonored had a series of separate zones instead of an open world, and these comments indicate that Deathloop will have the same. It even seems possible that each of the Visionaries will have their own district to preside over, with the exception of Jules Blake, the secondary player character tasked with hunting down Colt.
Since the districts are all connected, this system could still allow for a consistent world when it comes to tracking the movements of the Visionaries. Players may be able to follow Igor, for example, across the loading screen between the district he starts in and the one in which the Wolf's party takes place. Similarly, the player controlling Jules Blake could track Colt across multiple districts.
Deathloop won't have a true open-world, but it does appear to have a world which players will be able to explore in its entirety from the very start of the game. Arkane Studios will afford the player more freedom of exploration in Deathloop than it did in Dishonored, though the number of different ways players will be able to manipulate and take down their targets remains to be revealed.
Deathloop is launching September 14 for PC and PlayStation 5.